A Chinese-language version of The Data Journalism Handbook, an open-access, crowd-sourced, online reference guide to the emerging field of data journalism, is now available online.

The first edition of the handbook was released in English in April 2012, and the task of translating it into Chinese was initiated soon afterward by Cui Anyong, then studying for a master’s degree in new media and communications at City University in Hong Kong. Cui, a computer programmer, data miner and website developer currently working for Alibaba in Hangzhou, coordinated a team of 30 volunteer translators from Mainland China. He was helped by Li Mu, a research assistant at Hong Kong University’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre, and by the European Journalism Centre.

JMSC Director Yuen-Ying Chan calls data “a new frontier of journalism.” She says that data journalism “is developing quickly in mainland China despite the tight government control of news media,” and that the 70-page Chinese-language edition of the handbook will “reach out to the Chinese reading public—not just in China, but globally.”

The Data Journalism Handbook, described as a “free open-source reference book for anyone interested in the emerging field of data journalism,” emerged from the 2011 Mozilla Festival in London, where, in 48 hours, dozens of developers and journalists collaboratively composed the first draft of a step-by-step guide to this new field. The handbook is an ongoing initiative of the European Journalism Centre and the Open Knowledge Foundation.

Data journalism is a multidisciplinary field integrating data collection and analysis, graphic design, programming, and news writing to deliver stories in a visually compelling way. In the digital era, journalism has evolved from traditional story-telling to the the inclusion of data and visualisations that make complex stories more understandable.

Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web, is quoted in the handbook as saying: “Data-driven journalism is the future. Journalists need to be data-savvy. It used to be that you would get stories by chatting to people in bars, and it still might be that you’ll do it that way sometimes. But now it’s also going to be about poring over data and equipping yourself with the tools to analyze it and picking out what’s interesting.”

The handbook includes sections on such topics as “How to Hire a Hacker” and “How to Build a News App,” along with advice and anecdotes from experienced data journalists. It also provides case studies from organizations and publications as varied as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times, the BBC, the Wall Street Journal, the Australian Broadcasting Company, and Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat.

With the new Chinese-language edition, “Perhaps it won’t be long before case studies come from China,” says Darcy Christ, technical advisor for the OpenGov Project at the JMSC. “China’s media landscape is very complex, and there are lots of opportunities to tell stories using these journalism tools and techniques.”

A Chinese-language version of The Data Journalism Handbook, an open-access, crowd-sourced, online reference guide to the emerging field of data journalism, is now available online.
數據新聞手冊是一本自由開源、以眾籌模式完成的網上參考指南，向讀者介紹數據新聞這一新興領域。數據新聞手冊的中文版現已可以在網上閱讀。